Indoor location-based services

Billions of smartphone users throughout the world have come to expect, and rely upon, intuitive, reliable and accurate maps, directions, turn-by-turn navigation and other location-based services (LBSs). Those same users will over the next few years come to expect and then demand the same experience and services when they enter any large building or facility in the world whether that be a hospital, airport, shopping mall or university campus. Based on various reports and surveys, it is reported that indoor LBSs are expected to have an even bigger impact than outdoor LBSs mainly because indoor is where we spend our time and money, meet friends, and where business happens. Indoor LBSs have numerous applications including navigation, location based social networking, emergency services, location-based marketing, mobile games, asset tracking, and workforce location. In this paper, we describe the challenges that need to be solved in order to make indoor LBSs as ubiquitous as their outdoor counterpart and discuss the opportunity this provides.